Writing Effective E-Mail

It is difficult to convey emotion through the online medium of email. If you want to give something mild emphasis, enclose it in asterisks. This is the equivalent of italics in a paper document. For strong emphasis you can use all capital letters and toss in some extra exclamation marks. Use capital letters sparingly. Just use capital letters on the words you want emphasized. Using all capital letters will convey the message that you are shouting. One way to get across the "mutter" equivalent is to write what you really think and then give the sanitized version in the same sentence. You can also use double parentheses to denote "inner voice". Another way to "lower the voice" is to type without any capital letters. Use capitalization and other forms of emphasis sparingly. Too much of it will make your email hard to read and could make a bad impression on your reader.

You can use a emoticon, such as :-), to represent a facial gesture. You can use white space and typed-out vocalizations to represent pauses. You can also use white space to show which words belong to which cause. Creative puncuation can also be used. For example ?!?!. The question mark is shorthand for a furrowed brow or a "huh?". The exclamation mark is shorthand for amazement and possibly a scowl. The two together imply astonishment.

Some points to remember to express emotion:
Asterisks (for emphasis)
Capital Letters
Puncuation
White space
Lower-case letters

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